In the Trenches – Top Shot 4 Mind Dump

Last week’s episode was intense right out of the gate. The recap intro reminds us that we saw 18 competitors show up but 2 were eliminated right out of the gate. The team challenge was a nail biter essentially knocking down plates with a Ruger Vaquero in .357 Magnum (though they were shooting .38 special) with combat veteran Gregory Littlejohn struggling for blue team and nominating himself for elimination where he took out Frank the Custodian from Long Island in the M1 Carbine side car challenge… WHICH WAS AWESOME!

INTRO/TEAM PRACTICE:

• Also, after spending 45 minutes on the phone with Gregory Littlejohn today, I can safely say he sounds way more arrogant on the show than he does in person.
• Colby just introduced the BAR or the Browning Automatic Rifle. It’s one of the most popular full auto rifles in American War History, AND way up high on my “NEED” list. Glad to see the SAWMAN back to introduce it.
• Everyone seems  a bit surprised at how much recoil the BAR offers even while being full auto. Michelle Viscusi impressing the guys early on with her trigger control and upper body strength.
• Keith Gibson the cattle farmer from red team looks genuinely “ear to ear” excited about shooting a full auto. He can be seen shooting an UZI in his Top Shot video audition.
• Chris Cheng gets the expert pick for Red Team. He’s trying to be humble about it but you can tell he’s excited.

TEAM CHALLENGE:

• From Colby on Twitter: “Guys in black running the challenge are not only part of our dream team-but they’re damn good gunsmiths griswoldbrosgunsmithing.com“
• So they brought back the barbed wire crawl like the AK-47 episode in Season 3.
• Shooters have to crawl through the barbed wire challenge one at a time, take out 1 target, then on to the next guy from 100 yards out to 150 yards. Blue team is down one shooter and they choose to sit Chee Kwan from the red team. They picked him because of his military experience. Basically the teams need to crawl through the barbed wire and hit all their targets first to win.
• The RED team looks to be insanely organized and playing as a team. BLUE team looks like they’re trying to determine who the best is with egos out front.
• Littlejohn hits the target fast for BLUE redeeming himself a bit. Michelle Viscusi represents well by hitting the next target in reasonable time.
• Gabby Franco absolutely FLYING under the barbed wire for RED team and hits her target fast immediately followed by Dylan from BLUE knocking out their 6th target. Gabby has been VERY impressive so far. One tough chica for sure.
• Haha, BLUE team. Too many chiefs, not enough warriors. Terry has 6 other shooters shouting spotter marks to him at once.
• BLUE wins. Poor Iggy (sounds like a children’s book) for RED team didn’t even get to shoot the BAR in the challenge.
• Dylan and Michelle definitely looking fondly at one another on BLUE.

Not perfect but close. You've gotta imagine him in 20 years, but they talk the same!

TEAM MEETING/NOMINATION RANGE:

• RED team meeting. Looks like Gary, Keith and Kyle are all stepping up for nomination. Watching RED team’s meetings are a bit less stressful and egotistical than the BLUE team. Obviously this is just the 2nd episode so I’m speculating here.
• RED team claiming a performance based voting pattern as well. Just like every other season we’ll see if it holds up past the drama, but these guys all genuinely seem to like each other.
• Gary voted for Keith too, and I’m pretty sure he had ANOTHER collared shirt under his red team shirt.
• KYLE & KEITH are in elimination. Pretty unanimous decision.

ELIMINATION CHALLENGE:

• Milkor M32 A1 Grenade Launcher. I just peed a little. Capable of 6 grenades within 3 seconds. Hardcore. Looks like a giant 6 shooter revolver!
• Aaaaand right after I said that the SAWMAN Sawyer just said it. I swear I’m not copying him.
• Just pinned it. KYLE = MacGruber from SNL. Talks EXACTLY like him.
• Each guy has 4 targets, start outside and work in, first to blow them all wins. Both Keith and Kyle had strong practice rounds so this is anyone’s game. Targets are set up from 50-75 yards.
• The launchers are not loaded so the first exercise is for the guys to load their own launchers. Both guys rocking out the gate. Looks like prevailing wind is blowing across Kyle’s target. Lots of reloading, we’ve seen this be a deal breaker before in elimination challenges.
• Kyle gets the last one just before Keith gets reloaded again and wins. Keith goes home. Too bad, he was a classy dude.

Looks like next week is another shotgun show and it looks like season 2 winner Chris Reid is coming in as the firearms expert.